KING’S Autumn 2010 Magazine for members and friends of King’s College, Cambridge PARADE

Intelligence Gathering KING’S AS A RECRUITING GROUND FOR BLETCHLEY

a time traveller’s life: BACK TO THE BIG BANG WITH A LEADING COSMOLOGIST BODY AND SOUL: A STUDENT’S TAKE ON PHILOSOPHY AND ANATOMY IN MEMORIAM: TONY JUDT KING’SNEWFACES KING’SNEWFACES

Professor WELCOME TO THE Jeremy Morris: Herman AUTUMN EDITION The new dean Waldmann In March, Reverend Dr Jeremy Morris was Honorary Fellow elected as the college’s new Dean. Dr The renowned immunologist Herman Morris, who will officially take up the post Waldmann has been elected to an in October, joins King’s from Trinity Hall, honorary Fellowship. Since 1994, Professor where he served as Chaplain from 2001. Waldmann has been Head of the Sir William “I’ve moved from the smallest chapel in Dunn School of Pathology at the University Cambridge to the biggest,” he says. “King’s of Oxford. He had previously held the feels more cosmopolitan, open and diverse personal Chair of Kay Kendall, Professor of – but also a bit more laid back.” Therapeutic Immunology, while he was a Dr Morris studied Modern History at Balliol Fellow at King’s. College, Oxford, and after what he describes ’ve always thought the best thing He is best known for his work on “re- as a “brief and inglorious” spell in the City, about being a journalist is that you get programming” the immune system so that came to Cambridge to read Theology at Ia chance to talk to interesting people patients might more readily accept organ Clare and train for the Anglican priesthood at about work they’re passionate about. Never transplants, as well as in the fight against Westcott House. have I felt this more acutely than since I was diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Of his new role, Morris says: “It’s appointed the new editor of King’s Parade. diabetes. He has been a Fellow of the important for the chapel to serve the college. For my first issue I was privileged to spend British Royal Society since 1990 and A lot of my work will be about maintaining a an hour in the company of a very busy a Founding Fellow of the Academy of good relationship between the two.” cosmologist, hearing his thoughts on dark Medical Sciences since 1998. energy, string theory and the dizzying idea that we live in just one universe among an infinity of infinite universes. Read all about it Julie Bressor and Tessa Frost from page 4. Brian Sloan: Hazel Trapnell I also enjoyed chatting with King’s PhD Development Office New 1441 Member, student Louis Caron outside the British College lecturer Fellow Commoner Julie Bressor has started as the College’s new and Alumni Relations at Norwich University Library one morning. Louis introduced Hazel Trapnell has been admitted as a Family and property law specialist Brian Sloan has been Director of Development. in Northfield, Vermont. Julie, who began her me to the fascinating subject of his PhD, new Fellow Commoner. Mrs Trapnell is appointed the first Bob Alexander College Lecturer in Law. Julie will work closely with the Provost, career as a special collections librarian and the 17th-century anatomist Thomas widow of the late Roger Leigh Trapnell, a Sloan, who will provide ten hours of college supervisions Fellows, Development Board, King’s museum director, has also served on a variety Willis. Never heard of him? Neither had I, mathematician who studied at King’s in the a week, is finishing his PhD on the use of private law remedies Members and Friends to raise funds in of museum and library boards in Vermont. yet his ideas about the mind were more 1920s and went on to work with economist to support informal carers. support of the College. She will also work The Development Office welcomes Tessa influential than those of Descartes. Meet John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s. King’s has a long history of producing some of the UK’s most with the Development Office team to Frost as Development Officer. Tessa is Louis – and Willis – on page 12. The Leigh Trapnell Chair of Quantum senior legal professionals, including the President of the Supreme manage alumni relations, King’s Members responsible for Reunion and other Member I did my own PhD at Emmanuel, but Physics was established in 2002 as a result Court, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the former Master of the programmes, the Friends of King’s and a events, the Annual Fund and Telephone as I’ve got to know King’s better I’ve of a generous donation by Mrs Trapnell in Rolls and current Supreme Court Justice, Lord Clarke, and the “King’s is a variety of other special events and activities. Fundraising Campaign and the online discovered why so many students at other memory of her husband. She endowed British Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European “I am delighted to be at King’s”, says community and general alumni relations. colleges cite it as the college they wished nice fusion the Leigh Trapnell Professorship and is Communities, Eleanor Sharpston QC. Julie. “The King’s community is remarkably She replaces Chiara Ferrara (KC 2004), who they’d applied to. A progressive haven for of the sort a member of the University’s Guild of Yet until now, King’s has never had a fully funded Fellowship open and welcoming, and the Development is the Clinic Manager at HeadStart Sports free thinkers such as the late Tony Judt Cambridge Benefactors. in Law. The new Fellowship was created in memory of Kingsman of history programme enjoys a strong base of support Injury and Performance Clinics and the (page 13) and brilliant eccentrics such as Bob Alexander QC, who died in 2005. from King’s Members, Fellows and Friends.” Online Community Project Manager for the Alan Turing and the many other Kingsmen and tradition “At one time the idea of a Law Fellow at King’s would have Before moving to the UK, she was University of Cambridge. Thank you, Chiara, at Bletchley (see pages 6-7), King’s associated been seen as almost a contradiction in terms,” says Sloan. Associate Vice President for Development and welcome, Tessa! really is special. If you’ve got any stories “Previous generations of King’s Fellows saw Law as a vocational with Caius Mark Pigott, OBE that illustrate what makes this place Fellow Commoner subject that should be studied for only two years. But we now and the so different, please get in touch at admit undergraduates who specialise in Law at the outset, and Earlier this year Mark Pigott was admitted [email protected]. emphasise that it is an academic course that may eventually lead progressive as a Fellow Commoner of the College. Clare Lynch, Editor to legal practice.” values I Mark is Chairman and CEO of Seattle- Sloan says the teaching Fellowship will secure the King’s encountered based PACCAR, a world leader in the reputation for producing great legal minds. “When you’ve chosen design and manufacturing of trucks. the best students, you have a vested interest in ensuring they do at Robinson.” For over 100 years, the Pigott family well,” he says. has championed education, and Mark has King’s Parade is published by Sloan completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees continued this tradition by establishing King’s College, Cambridge CB2 1ST. at Robinson, moving to Caius for his PhD. Masters’ and undergraduate scholarships +44 (0)1223 331 100; He says: “King’s is a nice fusion of the sort of history and at King’s. In recognition of this, he has [email protected]; tradition associated with Caius and the progressive values been elected to the University’s Guild of Sue Turnbull, Amy Ingle, Tessa Frost, Julie Bressor, Jane Howell www.kings.cam.ac.uk I encountered at Robinson.” Benefactors.

2 3 KING’SRESEARCH KING’SRESEARCH

master of the universe For Professor George Efstathiou, the most revealing questions about our cosmos rofessor George Efstathiou has the inquiring The profound but childlike questions Efstathiou is mind of a child. Indeed, the King’s Fellow asking right now all relate to the earliest moments of are usually the most basic. Here, he tells Clare Lynch how the Planck satellite would probably argue that not growing up is the universe – and by “earliest” he means the tiniest will provide answers to the most basic question of them all: how did it all begin? Pall part of the job description when you’re an fractions of a second after the Big Bang (10-35 of a internationally renowned cosmologist. second, to be precise). And as with Olbers’ Paradox, “The most important questions in science are simple observations can lead to profound discoveries. “I find it usually the childlike questions,” he asserts as we By analysing the temperature differences that were discuss life, the universe and everything in his modest formed at the beginning of the universe, he and his amazing office off Madingley Road. Kavli colleagues are hoping to discover more about the that you We’re at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, physics that generated all of the structures that we see can actually Cambridge, of which Efstathiou is director and which, in the universe today – stars, galaxies, the whole lot. when it opened in October last year, realised one of Efstathiou’s boyish sense of wonder extends to the think of Efstathiou’s long-held dreams – to bring together fact that such discoveries are even possible when so observations researchers from the Institute of Astronomy and the many real-world problems are so hard to solve, such that would Department of Physics’ Cavendish Laboratory. as predicting when a volcano will erupt or finding a A poster above Efstathiou’s desk announces a cure for cancer. probe physics forthcoming talk that promises to explore big, important “I find it amazing that you can actually think of at those issues in his field: it’s titled “A crisis for cosmology”. observations that would probe physics at those very very early The whiteboard behind me is covered in equations – a early times and actually learn something about what mass of impenetrable squiggles of the kind that always happened,” he says. times and signify “scientist” in the Hollywood cliché. The observations that will provide the answers he actually learn Yet at first glance the questions Efstathiou is seeks are being made by the Planck satellite, which something posing today seem more suited to the nursery the European Space Agency launched from French than the laboratory. Guiana in May 2009. Efstathiou watched the launch about what “I don’t understand how people can go through life from 6.5 kilometres away and says it was one of the happened.” and not know why grass is green,” he says, quietly most spectacular things he’d ever seen. But while shaming this humanities graduate who until now has the dignitaries who’d been invited to the launch always been satisfied with answer “chlorophyll”. partied on the beach, he and his colleagues spent And the questions keep coming. a nervous ten hours glued to laptops as they cooled “Where did we come from? Why is the universe the satellite down, opened valves and switched on here? Why is it big? Why is it old? It’s important to me various critical functions. to try and find answers to these childlike but, I believe, “If anything goes wrong at that point the mission fundamentally important questions.” could be killed,” he points out. “So would you be in Efstathiou remembers vividly the childlike question the mood for a beach party and champagne? It was that first got him hooked on cosmology as a boy. One only after the satellite was past the moon and there Sunday afternoon, during the regular The Sky at Night was a lull in activity that we were able to relax.” broadcast, Patrick Moore announced that he was But there’s been little time for relaxation since. going to explain why the sky is dark at night. Readers may recall the first images sent back by “I remember thinking ‘You idiot! It’s obvious why – Planck that were splashed across the national press the sun’s gone down’,” he recalls. earlier this summer. The pictures revealed the striking But it got the young Efstathiou’s attention. And beauty of the ancient cosmos – but interpreting the just as well, because as with many apparently stupid images is a considerably less romantic process than questions, the answer wasn’t as obvious as it first the newspaper commentary would have you believe. seemed. Moore went on to describe Olbers’ Paradox, For this modern stargazer, discoveries aren’t made by which says that in an infinite universe, starlight should peering down a telescope, but by devising computer be visible at every point in the sky. The fact that it isn’t code that can make sense of the reams of data tells us that our universe is evolving. Planck is beaming back to earth. “From a simple observation you can learn something “I spend a lot of time at the computer screen writing deep and fundamental about the evolution of our programmes from scratch,” Efstathiou says of his day- universe,” Efstathiou says of the paradox. “I just to-day work. “We need to be finished by October 2012 thought that was so deep and profound that there must and it really is at the level now that if I could work be other questions that are deep and profound that you night and day I still wouldn’t be getting through it.” can tackle. That’s when I got interested in cosmology.” But the rewards of that work could be huge.

4 5 KING’SRESEARCH KING’SHISTORY

“What I’m really hoping for is a serendipitous and we arrived at a theoretical interpretation.” discovery – something that is unexpected,” he says. Sadly, even when you’re observing what happened For example? nearly 14 billion years ago, time isn’t always on your Not Single Spies, “We could, in principle, see strings from string side. Efstathiou still smarts to think about the large theory that have been stretched so that they go right research project that recently had to be axed because “We could, in across the universe.” the funding body ran out of money. principle, see “That,” he laughs, “would be revolutionary.” “With science, there’s always run-of-the-mill While there’s lots to be done, there are grounds projects and then there are some projects that have but in Battalions strings from for optimism, because when it comes to backing the potential to get Nobel prizes. Those are always string theory winners, Efstathiou has form – and not only because the ones I try to go for. This was one of those – it had that have been he and his two football-mad sons were supporting the potential for big discoveries. It was a shame it was On a recent trip to Bletchley Park, Stuart Lyons CBE (KC 1962) discovered that Alan Turing Spain in this year’s World Cup. One of the discoveries cancelled. But we do have Planck . . .” was just one of many Kingsmen whose intellect contributed to the defeat of Nazism stretched so he’s most proud of occurred during a previous stint So, I ask, is the ongoing struggle for funding the that they go in Cambridge (he spent nine years at Oxford before “crisis for cosmology” that he’s scheduled to talk to right across returning here in the 1990s). peers about later in the month? Efstathiou and a small group of research students had Actually, no. Efstathiou is using “crisis” in its “Kingsmen were all spies,” my brother the universe. planned to map the distribution of gallexies, a project original sense of “deciding moment” rather than once said dismissively. That would be that took several years. But when the results came back, the modern sense of “disaster”. He believes that “Nonsense,” I retorted. “That was Trinity.” revolutionary.” they didn’t agree with the theories of the time. at some point – he can’t say when – there will I was thinking of the infamous Gang of “That’s a very interesting position to be in because be a revolution in physics to match the quantum Five of the early 1950s: Kim Philby, Guy you have to make a judgement – if you publish, most mechanical revolution that took place in the 1920s Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and the “Fifth of the scientific community is going to say that you’re and which created the problem of how to marry the Man”, John Cairncross. Donald Maclean wrong. And so we purposely withheld publication and world as it is observed at very small scales with was just down the alley at Trinity Hall. spent another year checking.” Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. But my brother was right. A recent visit It was a brave call, given the short-term nature of The next crisis, he says, will stem from the fact to Bletchley Park with the Cambridge modern scientific culture in which funding bodies want that current theories suggest we might live in a Alumni brought the truth home. The point to see quick results. But the wait was worth it. Not only “multiverse” – an infinite number of infinite universes. was, however, that the Kingsmen spied were the results correct, but they could only be explained It raises fundamental questions – such as how do you for England. if most of the stuff in the universe were to comprise calculate things in a multiverse? And is our universe I had had an inkling of this as an a mysterious form of dark energy. It was a highly typical or not? undergraduate. I was secretary of the controversial thesis at the time, but it was correct. “There is no solution and there’s not even a Greek Play-Reading Society of Professor “Everybody knew dark matter dominated over framework of a solution,” he says. Sir Frank Adcock. One of my tasks was to ordinary matter,” he says. “But most of it was in dark But the childlike questions are already being take Adcock on his weekly walk. energy. And this hadn’t been said before – not with asked. And if past experience is anything to go by, the I would listen while he would talk. He observational evidence. We did two very significant answers will be completely unexpected. had difficulty in pronouncing the letter things – we pushed the boundaries of the observations ‘r’. “I’m still wather angwy with Powell,” he once ventured, pronouncing Powell to rhyme with “Noel”. “I wanted him to come to Bletchley.” Powell was Enoch Powell, who ended his life as a wayward Member of Parliament. That was as much as Adcock told me about his role as a senior recruiter for Bletchley Park. He and nearly ten thousand other men and women kept the secret for almost half a century, until it emerged in the media. Adcock joined naval intelligence not in the Second, but in the First World War. He was recruited by Sir James Alfred Ewing, a noted metallurgist who had had a professorial Fellowship at King’s. Ewing was in charge of Room 40 at the Admiralty in London, where a group of remarkable academics – half of them Kingsmen – deciphered the coded transmissions of the German navy.

Dr Peter Crispin Cobb was photographing Front Court in 1964 when Frank Adcock suddenly appeared in the frame, creating the only image of Adcock we A picture of the ancient cosmos, beamed back by the Planck satellite. ESA/ LFI & HFI Consortia have in the King’s archive. “It does sum him up to a T however, as by that stage he was pretty old and tended to scuttle around college,” says Dr Cobb.

6 7 KING’SHISTORY KING’SARCHIVES

Ewing died before the outbreak of the Second Archive Jane austen’s sanditon World War. It fell to Adcock and his fellow Kingsman Dilly Knox to build the UK’s code-breaking effort at Bletchley Park. Bletchley was midway between Oxford King’s unique manuscript of Jane Austen’s unfinished and Cambridge, and well suited geographically, if not novel Sanditon is now available online, where you in its accommodation, to be a centre of operations for can view digital facsimiles of the pages and read a Britain’s cryptologists. searchable transcription of the text. The history of the men and women who worked The Sanditon manuscript was given to King’s by at Bletchley Park is revealed in The Defence of Mary Isabella Lefroy in 1930, in memory of Provost the Realm, the authorised history of MI5 written Augustus Austen-Leigh and his wife, Mary’s sister by Professor Christopher Andrew, the President of Florence. Both the Austen-Leighs and the Lefroys were Corpus Christi College. It was Andrew who gave our related to Jane Austen. King’s also has two collections Cambridge Alumni group a one-hour lecture on our of Jane Austen books, first and later editions, donated May Day visit. by Dorothy Warren and David Gilson. According to Andrew, about a third of the High The Jane Austen Fiction Manuscripts Project is an Table at King’s transferred to Bletchley. One of exciting project which aims to digitise all surviving According them was my Director of Studies in Latin, Patrick manuscripts of Austen’s fiction to create an online to Professor Wilkinson, who, having been pre-selected by collection of her work and allow scholars across the world to access these fascinating documents. So far Christopher Adcock, arrived at Bletchley within a fortnight of the outbreak of war. The Bletchley register records the collection includes manuscripts held in the British Andrew’s history that his speciality was breaking the Italian naval Library, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the Pierpont of MI5, about a codes. Sydney Eason, whom he later married, was Morgan Library, New York, and in private collections. The project is organised by the University of Oxford third of the High concerned with Algiers and North Africa. None of them uttered a word about their wartime experiences and King’s College, London, and funded by The Arts Table at King’s during the many years I knew them. and Humanities Research Council. transferred to The most famous Kingsman at Bletchley was View the Sanditon and other Austen manuscripts at Bletchley Alan Turing, the extraordinarily bright but eccentric mathematician. Turing invented the first mainframe www.janeausten.ac.uk/index.html computer, the Bombe, which was designed to crack the German Enigma. A fascinating exhibition Archive the battle for britain: king’s on the home front mounted by the King’s archivist at Bletchley Park showed a selection of his letters to his mother and You can also go online to view all kinds of documents and photos close friends, including one written shortly before that offer insights and reveal interesting episodes in the history of his death. King’s College. To what extent did the spies of Bletchley Park For example, at the outbreak of the Second World War, life at win the war? Doubtless, the might of America, and King’s initially continued as normal, with students encouraged to Russia’s response to the Nazi invasion, provided the come up and pursue their studies until they were called up for duty. engines of victory. But Bletchley Park produced the Letters, such as the one pictured here, show that students were intelligence. When the Allies created disinformation summoned to serve the war effort, and by to persuade Hitler that the invasion of France would 1942, the university had focus on the Pas de Calais, it was Bletchley that developed a scheme which reported he had swallowed the bait. allowed cadets to come up The public image of King’s is of a glorious iconic to study for two terms during chapel and a beautiful academic setting. What their military training. goes on within our courts seems mysterious to the Another letter – from tourist. Indeed, it is difficult to encapsulate in any an RAF Squadron Leader single account the achievements over time of such – highlights the tensions a diversity of individual talents, as is produced by caused by the housing the College. The story of the King’s contribution to of troops at the college, the defeat of Nazism shows how fellows from many with conflicts arising over different disciplines used their intellectual brilliance in everything from food supplies a great common cause. and filing cabinets to the shortage of china mugs. See the back page for details of the upcoming See these and other celebrations of the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth. documents and photos at www.kings.cam.ac.uk/ archive-centre

From the top: Alan Turing, L. Patrick Wilkinson (photographer Antony Barrington Brown) and Sir James Alfred Ewing (photographer J. Palmer Clarke). Left: A student’s letter informing his tutor that he had been called up for duty. Right: Request from RAF Squadron Leader for extra china mugs

8 9 KING’SBOOKS EDITOR’SCHOICE

Out of Silence by Susan Tomes

Pianist and writer Susan Tomes (KC 1972) was the first woman to be admitted to study music at King’s. For the past fifteen years she has been the pianist of the Florestan Trio, one of the world’s leading trios.

With her two previous books, Beyond the Notes and A Musician’s Alphabet, chamber pianist Susan Tomes proved herself as accomplished a writer as she is a musician. Out of Silence augments Tomes’ reputation for illuminating aspects of the musician’s life with intelligence, candour and wit. In a series of one- or two-page essays, Tomes shows how everyday life provides ideas for understanding music, and vice versa. Some of her anecdotes reveal how music means different things to different people, such as the story of the aunt who dissolves into tears on The New Separation cambridge: Treasure Montacute House hearing her 11-year-old niece play Danny Boy by ear, having been wholly of Powers Island in the Fens by Lucy Jago unmoved by her rendition of a fast and intricate Chopin fantasie-impromptu. by Eoin Carolan by Nicholas Chrimes Lucy Jago (KC 1985) graduated with a double- Others tell us more about the nature of the musician, such as Tomes’ Dr Eoin Carolan (KC 2002) is a graduate of Trinity Nicholas Chrimes graduated from Bristol first class honours degree and two scholarships recollection that as a girl she enjoyed playing tennis until she learned that College Dublin. He also attended King’s as a University and INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He has and went on to complete an MA at the Courtauld she was supposed to hit the ball so that the other person couldn’t hit it back “Tomes has a particular graduate student and is a former visiting researcher lived near Cambridge with his wife and four Institute in London. Lucy now writes full time and – an early sign that she was to be suited to the life of the chamber musician. at Harvard Law School. He is currently a barrister children for over twenty years. is the award-winning author of three books. understanding of humanity Follow the daily life of Susan Tomes on her blog: www.susantomes.com and lecturer in law at University College Dublin. Cambridge: Treasure Island in the Fens Cess, the lowly chicken girl at Montacute rare in writing about music.” Boydell & Brewer, In a clear and readable style, this analysis offers its reader entertaining insights into house, is shunned by the villagers John Greening, TLS, on Out of Silence. Hardback £19.99 of contemporary governance explains many an establishment known to many but because she has never known who her of the characteristics of modern democracy often only by reputation. This study of both father is. On her thirteenth birthday she and liberal constitutionalism for experts and the town and the university mixes a broad finds a precious locket hidden in the A Book of King’s King’s Through the Seasons non-experts alike. history of Cambridge with its idiosyncratic chicken coop and is convinced someone Explaining how changes in modern traditions and details. The book takes us has placed it there for her to find. On the governance have subverted the principles from early history to the challenges faced same day a boy’s body is found by the MP Tam Dalyell, Guardian underpinning the separation of legislative, today and includes chapters on the influence river, and when her best friend William writer Simon Hoggart, judiciary and executive powers, Carolan of women, both in recent times and as early disappears Cess is accused by the model Lily Cole, and suggests a new approach which has the founders and benefactors. It reveals the villagers of bewitching him. war reporter and former potential to enhance democratic checks extraordinary privileges the University has Lucy Jago’s debut novel is a thrilling independent MP Martin and balances and legitimise the role of enjoyed, often to the detriment of the town, murder mystery, written for young adults, Bell are among the fifty or administrative and regulatory bodies. and explores its monastic legacy, cultural that takes place during the reign of so Kingsmen and women He draws on examples from the United heritage and worldwide influence. Elizabeth I. It’s a fast-paced adventure who contributed to this Kingdom, Ireland and the United States to The book also features in-depth involving witchcraft, politics, family secrets illustrated collection look at how legal and political notions of descriptions of individual colleges and religious ambition. of reflections on life institutional separation have so far dealt and chapels – their origin, layout and Lucy’s research into the real-life at King’s. Celebrated with the problems posed by the emergence reputation. Naturally, King’s College Chapel Montacute House in Somerset and her photographer Martin Parr Enjoy a different view of King’s every month with the King’s of quasi-public administrative or regulatory is awarded space in the book befitting its evident passion for history ensures the provides many of the College calendar 2011, which features 12 new photographs of agencies, and how these issues may be physical and cultural impact on the town. book is full of incidental historical detail book’s striking images. the King’s chapel and grounds, many taken by members of staff. addressed in the future. The history of its construction embraces that brings Cess’s world alive – plague boils “King’s is different. And for Christmas, this attractive card depicts a wintery view of Far from taking the traditional view that the reigns of five monarchs, each of whom and all. Covering subjects such as poverty, This book is different,” the chapel by Cambridge artist Steve Lewis. administrative agencies pose a threat to viewed the importance of its completion plague, Catholic vs. Protestant strife and says Professor Ross Harrison, Provost. democracy, Carolan argues that such bodies from their own political perspective. the troubles that beset Elizabeth I, the book “It is packed with a jostling profusion of Calendar: £6.99 (available now). can provide the opportunity to reform public Chrimes has written a rich, engaging covers subjects in the National Curriculum different ideas, images, and perceptions.” Christmas card: 1.99 for a single card or £7.99 for a pack of five governance in a way which re-establishes book that will appeal to graduate, Key Stage 3 History, making it a useful (available from mid-October). the essential principles of democracy. inhabitant and visitor alike. teaching aid. A Book of King’s (£40) will be published Buy online at www.kingsmembers.org or contact The Shop at in November. Order your copy at www. King’s on +44 (0)1223 769342. Oxford University Press, An imprint of Hobs Aerie Publications, Bloomsbury, tmiltd.com or call +44 (0)20 7336 0144. All Members receive 10% off. Hardback £50 Hardback £20 Hardback £10.99

10 11 KING’SSTUDENTS INMEMORIAM

Tony Judt Sir Frank

influence that his time at King’s had upon him – and indeed, his contemporaries at Kermode the college – and in particular cites the guidance of his tutor John Dunn (still a Fellow of the college) as a crucial element in his education. He was elected a Fellow of King’s himself in 1972 and remained at the college until 1978, when he left to teach at the University of California at Berkeley. He went on to teach at St Anne’s College, Oxford, and finally New York University, where he became Erich Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies. Judt was diagnosed with the motor neuron disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 2008. He continued to work as much as the progression of the Tony Judt, historian and former Fellow of disease would allow, and died at his King’s College, died Friday 6th August, home in Manhattan of complications Honorary Fellow Professor Sir Frank aged 62. Judt is best known for his from the disease. Kermode died on 17 August, age 90. controversial essays on American foreign After learning of his illness, one of Judt’s Frank Kermode was one of the most policy, Israel and the future of Europe, former students named Saul Goldberg respected and influential literary critics of and for his critically acclaimed and highly launched Move For ALS, a campaign to his generation. His collections of essays influentialPostwar: A History of Europe raise awareness and funds to fight the and lectures became standard university Since 1945. disease. Together with his friend Augustin My PhD: Louis Caron texts, with the most famous being The Judt arrived at King’s in 1966 to study Quancard, Saul recently cycled across the Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory history, and gained both his BA degree United States from Seattle to New York, A King’s graduate student tells Clare Lynch about his research of Fiction (1967, 2000). He was a prolific (1969) and a PhD (1972) at the college. raising $71,000 for the cause. writer and only last year published a book, – a cross-disciplinary study of 17th-century ideas about the brain In his final article for theNew York Review To learn more about ALS and make a Concerning EM Forster. of Books, he recounts the formative donation, visit www.moveforals.com Kermode was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, in 1919. He rose from humble n my PhD, I’m looking at how changing theories Willis believed a better knowledge of the beginnings to win a scholarship to of human anatomy influenced thinking about the anatomy of the brain would lead to a more precise Liverpool University, where he took both BA “These days, human mind in the 17th century. understanding of how the soul relies on the and MA degrees. On graduating in 1940 I’m doing it at King’s thanks to the John body. Descartes’ ideas on the links between the Wynne Godley most people I he joined the Royal Navy where he spent Sperling (KC 1953) studentship. Sperling is a sensations and the soul are better known, but he Emeritus Fellow Wynne Godley died on 13 He was also a Member of the Treasury’s most of the war years. Kermode was the who’ve billionaire businessman who endowed money to didn’t examine the physical facts in the way Willis May, age 83. Godley had a reputation for Panel of Independent Forecasters last visitor to have lunch on HMS Hood heard of King’s to enable graduates of Reed College in Oregon did – and a lot of people were more impressed by being one of the most original economists (“The Six Wise Men”) under John before she was destroyed by the Bismarck. to do a PhD here – just as Sperling himself did. Willis than by Descartes. Indeed, when John Locke Thomas Willis of his generation. Major’s government. After the war he returned to academia to The affinities between King’s and Reed are famously said “Everything we understand about In the 1970s he was scorned when Godley’s early career lay in music. He hold teaching positions at some of world’s are retired obvious. Reed is a small liberal arts college with a the world depends on our sensations”, he was he predicted that unemployment would studied at the Paris Conservatoire and most prestigious universities, including neurologists reputation for academic rigour. Like King’s, it’s also appropriating the idea from Willis. rise to 3 million in the 1980s, but his became a professional oboist with the Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton and Yale. known for being very progressive – actually, its liberal I’m in the writing-up stage and plan to submit my who read him prediction came true. He also attracted BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra. But his He was elected a Fellow of the British credentials are even more marked than those of thesis next April. I’ll be applying for junior research the wrath of the Thatcher government for musical career was cut short by stage Academy in 1973. In 1974 he was elected for kicks.” King’s. In the 1950s, an FBI agent was sent to Reed Fellowships, but if I can’t do post-doctoral study I plan dismissing its economic policies as “a fright. “I was plagued by nightmarish fears a Fellow of King’s and became King to investigate its suspected Marxist tendencies. When to set up a private tutoring company in my hometown gigantic con trick”. of letting everyone down,” he said. Edward VII Professor of English Literature he reported back that everyone at Reed read Marx of Santa Barbara, California – there’s a huge demand Despite his maverick status, Godley He changed careers and became an at Cambridge University. He remained a but didn’t believe any of it, the agent was fired. for it. also worked within the establishment. economic analyst. In 1956 got a job as Fellow of King’s until 1986, by which time Both Reed and King’s have a reputation for Having studied at both Reed and King’s, I’ve noticed Between 1971 and 1973 he was Official a forecaster in the Treasury and in 1970 he had moved to Columbia University. He independent thought – and so did Thomas Willis, big differences between the US and UK education Adviser to the Select Committee on he joined the Department of Applied was elected an Honorary Fellow of the the influential but little-known English anatomist who systems. Back home, education is very broad, Public Expenditure, and in 1975 he was Economics at Cambridge. He was elected College in 1987 and was knighted for his is the subject of my PhD. These days, most people whereas the UK generates experts in particular fields. an Economic Consultant to the Treasury. a Fellow of King’s in the same year. services to literature in 1991. who’ve heard of Willis are retired neurologists who In many ways, by exploring in detail the links between read him for kicks, but he had some ingenious, and by two different disciplines – anatomy and philosophy – Full obituaries of Tony Judt, Sir Frank Kermode and Wynne Godley will appear in the Annual Report. the standards of the time, quite modern ideas. my thesis is a product of both systems.

12 13 KING’SNEWS KING’SNEWS

Summer Drought Reveals A Year at King’s Phone A Friend Wheels of College’s Hidden History The annual Telephone Fundraising and everybody seems to have extremely Change Campaign gives current students and good memories of the experience – even if NRMs a chance to share their experiences they subsequently went on to follow entirely In the feature on green King’s in our last of King’s. In March, 15 King’s students unrelated career paths. issue, we asked you to get in touch if you’re manned the phones and called almost “One NRM, whilst professing to have working on the environment in some way. 1,000 Members. As well as bringing together spent very little time at university doing any We heard back from two NRMs who are Members young and old, the goal was to work at all, admitted that when I phoned helping to transform major cities. raise £175,000 towards the Supplementary him he had just been on the sofa reading You might have heard of Boris’s bikes, Exhibition Fund, the Chapel and Choir, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses – in Latin! Another which are encouraging healthier and the Library and Archives. So successful was gentleman, aged over 80, began quoting cleaner commuting in London. Taking the campaign that it exceeded the target by the Iliad to me in original Homeric Greek, up Boris’s baton, Ben Irvine (KC 2002) some way, raising over £229,047 so far – an translating as he went. I hope I can still quote has launched the London Cycle Map amazing result, and the highest total of any the Iliad when I am 80! Campaign. Ben hopes to create a single Telephone Fundraising Campaign to date. map that’s easy to use and corresponds A new CD celebrates the ecclesiastical “The phone campaign has What’s more, the callers received career to a unified network of signed cycle routes year as sung in the chapel and conducted proved a very life-affirming advice, got work placement offers, and heard throughout the capital – the cycling by the Director of Music at King’s, Stephen some memorable anecdotes about King’s experience for me, as everybody equivalent of the London underground map. Cleobury. Out now on the EMI label, A Year at from as far back as the 1930s. During the The vehicle for Ben’s campaign is King’s includes works drawn from 600 years seems to have extremely good campaign, second-year Classicist Maya wrote his magazine Cycle Lifestyle (www. of musical history by composers as diverse memories of King’s.” Right: The back lawn clearly showing the outline of the belfry. Left: Map of the college from 1788 about taking part on the King’s blog – here’s cyclelifestyle.co.uk), which he set up as a as Palestrina, Poulenc and Pärt. It also what she said: “When the computer brings up man after social enterprise in 2009. features such favourites as Allegri’s Miserere The recent drought has revealed the sale helped to pay for the Gibbs Building. “The phone campaign has been a man after man, I have to remind myself Across the Channel, Hélène de and Barber’s Agnus Dei, as well as the first outlines of former buildings of King’s. Other marks on the Back Lawn show two delightful foray into life after King’s. Initially, that this is not a technical glitch but that Largentaye (KC 1986) is working for the recording of Tavener’s Away in a Manger, In the Back Lawn you can see the outline former paths that led to a bowling green the computer assigns you Non Resident there actually were no female students at City of Paris, with a mission to transform written for the 2004 Christmas Eve service. of an old belfry, a bowling green and and a kitchen garden, and the faded trace Members (NRMs) who correspond as much King’s before 1972. It’s been interesting the French capital into a sustainable, several old paths crossing the lawn. In the of the old back drive to the college, which “I would happily sit in as possible to your own degree course or to hear about life at King’s before women, dynamic city with a high quality of life. front lawns between the Screen and King’s ran through the middle of the lawn. and pleasantly surprising that everybody I King’s College Chapel listening interests. So, thus far, I have mainly been In 2007 the City of Paris voted for a climate Parade, you can see the outlines of the old Until 1835, many of the college buildings calling Classicists. have spoken to has been extremely positive change plan to reduce greenhouse gas hall and Provost’s study. stood between the Front Screen and to this choir sing for the rest “This has proved a very life-affirming about the fact that women are here now.” emissions by 25% in 2020. Promoting clean The belfry, located in the northeast King’s Parade. These buildings included of my days.” experience for me, as nobody has had a You can donate to the campaign at transport and developing renewable energy corner of the Back Lawn, once contained offices, the old hall and the Provost’s study. Richard Morrison, The Times. bad word to say about Classics at King’s www.kingsmembers.org/donations are among the initiatives Hélène’s involved in. five bells donated by the college founder They were pulled down to make way for Henry VI (1421-71). These bells were recast the Victorian Gothic buildings that now A Year At King’s is available at The Shop several times, however, because they surround the Front Court. at King’s 13 King’s Parade, Cambridge Inspiration in Dark Times kept cracking. The Fellows of the college You can find out more about the history CB2 1SP or online at These naïve, fanciful images, recently on show at King’s, were eventually gave up on the unreliable bells, of the gardens and King’s in general by www.kings.cam.ac.uk/visit/shop.html created by Canadian Theology student John Devlin (St Edmund’s, and in 1739 the belfry was demolished and looking at the online at www.kings.cam. Price: £15.99 1979). Tragically, mental illness cut short his studies and forced “I fixed upon King’s as my favourite the bells sold for scrap. Proceeds from the ac.uk/archive-centre. him to return to Canada for treatment. college and decided to embellish the Are You a In order to aid his recovery and express his desire to return to buildings there in my imagination.” Cambridge, John began to draw sketches from memory, to remind King’s College Register John Devlin Cat Person? him of happier times. King’s is printing a new, limited edition members admitted between 1919 and King’s has always been known for its feline of the King’s College Register. The 1990. The preface to the 1963 edition members, and we’ve recently heard a few hardback directory of all living King’s states that the book’s chief purpose is “to entertaining anecdotes about “the King’s Members who matriculated in 2006 keep alive mutual interest in members cats”. Our favourite is the one about a or before was originally scheduled to of a great foundation, and to enable and fellow who, when he was about to come be published this year, but will now be encourage them to retain or regain touch up in 1932 rang the Porters’ Lodge to printed in spring 2011. with each other”. ask if he might bring his beloved Siamese With the time-consuming work of The King’s College register is cat Ming with him. “Certainly, Sir. It’s only gathering, compiling and editing the available to pre-order online for the pre- women and dogs we don’t allow here,” details of every living King’s Member, it publication price of £25 plus p&p at www. replied the porter. would be easy to lose sight of the project’s kingsmembers.org/store (scroll down to Do you have any anecdotes about the ultimate goal: to provide a record of all the bottom of the page). After publication, college’s furry friends? We’re thinking of alumni dating back to 1797. the King’s Register will sell for £35. featuring them in a future issue so send your Also known as the “Purple Book”, the You can also contact the Register stories to [email protected]. Register was first published in 1903 and Project Assistant at register.book@kings. If we get enough of a response, the college last published in 1998, when it included cam.ac.uk or on 01223 767 361. might even produce a book on the subject.

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Save the date King’s Events

23 October 2010 20 December The Development Office is happy to King’s College Choir Christmas Festival 2010 help with questions regarding events Wangfujing Church, Beijing, China. Royal Albert Hall or to help plan a visit to the College. 1 – 14 November 2010 The choir of King’s College, Cambridge, You can reach us on King’s Art Centre performs a selection of carols and [email protected] ‘Between two worlds’ seasonal classics for all or +44 (0)1223 331 443. Exhibition of acrylic paintings 15 and 16 January 2011 We look forward to hearing from you! by Lithuanian artist Algimantas King’s College Choir Ramanauskas The Sage, Gateshead and Durham Cathedral 3 November Book Launch, ‘A Book of King’s’ 5 March 2011 6.30 – 8.30pm Geographers’ Lunch 2012 Alan Turing £15 (pre-publication subscribers 11 March 2011 complimentary) King’s College Choir Celebrations The Royal Society, London King’s Place, London 20 November 19 March 2011 1441 Foundation Dinner Foundation Lunch For College benefactors and guests, Foundation Concert by invitation only. 26 March 2011 14 and 15 December MA Congregation (KC 2004) King’s College Choir 26 March 2011 Rotterdam and Groningen King’s College Choir Geneva

Concerts at King’s 22 October 2010 25 February 2011 Gamelan concert King’s College Choir 30 October Alison Balsom, Philharmonia Orchestra ‘Perfect Econony’ 5 March 2011 A concert in memory of Wynne Godley Richard Rodney Bennett and Claire Celebrations are being planned to mark Dante Quartet with Nicholas Daniel and Martin in Cabaret the centenary of mathematician Alan King’s Choral Scholars Turing’s birth (KC 1931). Proposed 30 January 2011 events include conferences, lectures, an Richard Lloyd Morgan education day at Bletchley Park, and a relay race between Ely and Cambridge, More information can be found online at www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events along the route that Turing used while training for his marathons. King’s College will host a conference in June 2012 Women’s Event Engineers’ that will look at Turing’s contributions to a range of scientific fields – from Event mathematics and computer science to Zadie Smith, King’s alumna and tenured philosophy and developmental biology. professor of fiction at New York University, In June, over 100 engineering students, The events are being coordinated by was the pre-dinner speaker at this year’s Fellows and alumni from matriculation The Turing Centenary Advisory Committee women’s event. She joined speakers years 1941–2009 gathered for a day of (TCAC), an international collection of including Dr Jude Browne, King’s Fellow seminars and socialising. academics and cultural organisations. whose research interests include gender, Professor John Young (KC 1977) kicked Fuller details of the year’s events can sex segregation and political and social off the talks with his session, “The Road be found on the TCAC website at theories of equality; Alison Maitland, to Thermotopia”, immediately followed www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012. King’s alumna and former Financial Times by Dr Tawfique Hasan (KC 2009) with his See page 7 for more on Alan Turing and journalist; Dr Elizabeth Murchison, King’s session, “Nanotechnology – the future is his King’s colleagues at Bletchley Park. research Fellow; Sally Muggeridge, Chief small!”. Later, Dr Stephanie Lacour (KC Executive of the Industry and Parliament 2006) spoke on “Electric circuits with a Trust; and Cheryl Campbell, Cambridge stretch” and Dr Cesare Hall (KC 1992) graduate and CEO of film company TVE. talked about “Future aircraft engines for Attendees also enjoyed an exhibition of reduced emissions”. King’s Parade is published by Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell’s writings, Later, dinner gave everyone King’s College, Cambridge CB2 1ST. art and correspondence, from the King’s an opportunity to continue their +44 (0)1223 331 100; College archives, alongside an exhibition conversations, catch up on any news and [email protected]; of female students’ art. to reminisce about their time at King’s. www.kings.cam.ac.uk

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